Well it is hard to say exactly. Basically what your computer does when it deletes something is it sets the bits that the file took up, back to 0. As anyone who knows anything about computers knows, all compputerized data are just ones and zeros. So technically this would mean that they are being wiped from existence. Since, data is so large these days individual bits do not really matter.... ok they do matter but you guys know what I mean. When you zero out data it wipes it from the plane of existence. So to answer your question the data ceases to be.

Well it is hard to say exactly. Basically what your computer does when it deletes something is it sets the bits that the file took up, back to 0. As anyone who knows anything about computers knows, all compputerized data are just ones and zeros. So technically this would mean that they are being wiped from existence. Since, data is so large these days individual bits do not really matter.... ok they do matter but you guys know what I mean. When you zero out data it wipes it from the plane of existence. So to answer your question the data ceases to be.

What he said.
I'm not really sure of what I'm going to say but I think, for short, that when a file reached the limit of 0 means that it still exist, although that the usage and the program will be unavailable. That's why ift goes to the Recycle Bin for it to have a Reservation if you ever want to restore that again.
Well, basically, cleaning the Recycle Bin will permanently delete your file.
So, better be careful ^_^;

Cleaning Recycle Bin does not permanently delete all your file.s it keeps it incase u really want to get it back. I've been there, tried that, done that. However not all stuff can be recovered. documents and pictures maybe able to be recovered. but anything else like programs, once u empty from recycle bin, away it goes. It all depends though.
It actually stored somewhere...for a period of time. before permanently deleting. So before they permanently delete it, u can use programs to restore ur files after u emptied recycle bin. however, there is loss of data and the file retrieved might not be complete.

In fact if you delete a file it will get automaticly moved to the BIn where you can easily restore it again.
Even if you empty it - the files will remain in your harddisc till you need the storage for new created files etc.
With recovery programs they can be saved.
So it can happen that files you deleted via Bin r still somewhere in your HDD or they hav already been overwritten.

Sometimes it can take months till a file is completly deleted.
yeah and btw programms like DOD 5220.22 can eliminate those files forever

anti-freeze wrote:
So technically this would mean that they are being wiped from existence. Since, data is so large these days individual bits do not really matter.... ok they do matter but you guys know what I mean. When you zero out data it wipes it from the plane of existence. So to answer your question the data ceases to be.

This is totally false.

This is actually a complex subject that depends on the media type, but generally speaking the data of a deleted file is still on the disk until the space taken by the deleted file is reused by the operating system. Even when reused or intentionally overwritten, advanced forensic techniques involving electron microscopy can restore the data.

Files that was deleted and emptied in the recycle bin or that was shift deleted are not totally deleted.. Windows (or any other OS) how ever recognizes it as deleted one or a free space in the hard disk... there are bunch of good softwares out there that can recover those files...

if you want to completely delete it.. there is also a software wherein it writes a single space of your hard drive and eventually overwriting those "empty space" that are in the hard drive..

anti-freeze wrote:
So technically this would mean that they are being wiped from existence. Since, data is so large these days individual bits do not really matter.... ok they do matter but you guys know what I mean. When you zero out data it wipes it from the plane of existence. So to answer your question the data ceases to be.

This is totally false.

This is actually a complex subject that depends on the media type, but generally speaking the data of a deleted file is still on the disk until the space taken by the deleted file is reused by the operating system. Even when reused or intentionally overwritten, advanced forensic techniques involving electron microscopy can restore the data.

Oh right you need scrubbing software to actually zero out the data, well on a windows machine anyway. I have found that most Unix machines do a little more than unlinking the data.

Cleaning Recycle Bin does not permanently delete all your file.s it keeps it incase u really want to get it back. I've been there, tried that, done that. However not all stuff can be recovered. documents and pictures maybe able to be recovered. but anything else like programs, once u empty from recycle bin, away it goes. It all depends though.
It actually stored somewhere...for a period of time. before permanently deleting. So before they permanently delete it, u can use programs to restore ur files after u emptied recycle bin. however, there is loss of data and the file retrieved might not be complete.

anti-freeze wrote:
So technically this would mean that they are being wiped from existence. Since, data is so large these days individual bits do not really matter.... ok they do matter but you guys know what I mean. When you zero out data it wipes it from the plane of existence. So to answer your question the data ceases to be.

This is totally false.

This is actually a complex subject that depends on the media type, but generally speaking the data of a deleted file is still on the disk until the space taken by the deleted file is reused by the operating system. Even when reused or intentionally overwritten, advanced forensic techniques involving electron microscopy can restore the data.

Files that was deleted and emptied in the recycle bin or that was shift deleted are not totally deleted.. Windows (or any other OS) how ever recognizes it as deleted one or a free space in the hard disk... there are bunch of good softwares out there that can recover those files...

if you want to completely delete it.. there is also a software wherein it writes a single space of your hard drive and eventually overwriting those "empty space" that are in the hard drive..

too much complicated to explain.

not totally deleted? so even if i deleted a virus-infected file, my computer is still under threat?

~~~~~~~Can you stop multiple posting? Use the edit button, for pete's sake...
~ edited by edsamac